Member of Parliament in India’s Upper House Swati Maliwal has sensationally claimed that “crores of rupees” linked to an alleged Punjab land scam and hawala network had already been moved to Australia, after Enforcement Directorate (ED) raids triggered dramatic scenes in Chandigarh and Mohali.
Maliwal, who is a Former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader, alleged that the raids targeted close associates of Rajbir Singh Ghuman, Officer on Special Duty (OSD) to Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann.
“Upon seeing the ED arrive, these people started throwing bags of notes from the ninth floor,” Maliwal claimed in a statement, alleging that officials sitting inside the Chief Minister’s Office were involved in brokerage and illegal project approvals.
She further alleged that “crores of rupees have already reached Australia through hawala” and claimed those involved planned to flee overseas if they lost political power.
The ED on Thursday carried out searches at around a dozen locations in Punjab and Chandigarh as part of a money laundering investigation linked to alleged fraudulent land deals, illegal Change of Land Use (CLU) licences and suspected real estate fraud worth hundreds of crores of rupees.
The ED raids are linked to a money laundering probe stemming from a Punjab Police case involving alleged forgery, fraudulent acquisition of land parcels and irregular approvals connected to the Suntec City real estate project in Mullanpur near Chandigarh.
According to agency officials, properties linked to businessman Nitin Gohal, alleged associates of builders and several real estate companies including ABS Townships, Altus Builders and Dhir Constructions were searched under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
Investigators allege that developers fraudulently obtained CLU licences from the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) using forged consent letters and fake landowner signatures, before collecting huge sums from investors.
Punjab Police investigations reportedly found signatures of at least 14 landowners had been forged in documents prepared in 2014 to secure approvals for the project.
Authorities allege that the Indian Cooperative Housing Building Society, linked to businessman Ajay Sehgal and others, collected more than Rs150 crore from members and investors without properly executing sale deeds.
The ED also searched premises connected to the Suntec City project and Sehgal, who was previously arrested by Punjab Police in 2022 on charges related to forgery and cheating.
Shiromani Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia also claimed on social media that bags of cash were thrown from an apartment during the raids, creating what some local reports described as a “rain of notes”.
AAP Punjab spokesperson Baltej Pannu denied any links between Gohal and the Punjab Chief Minister’s OSD, though he declined to comment directly on the ED searches.
The case has intensified political tensions in Punjab, with opposition leaders accusing the ruling Aam Aadmi Party government of shielding corruption within the state’s real estate approval system.
The ED investigation is continuing, with officials examining alleged money laundering, illegal land conversion approvals and possible overseas hawala transactions connected to the scam.
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